Sarah Palin: Tea Partiers "Have to Pick a Party"

Asked what her advice would be to conservatives as the November elections approach, Palin first lavished praise on the Tea Party movement, calling it "a grand movement" and adding, "I love it because it’s all about the people."

But she quickly pivoted to the broader question of whether the Tea Party movement might successfully field its own candidates in national elections, and on that point she sounded far from convinced.

"Now the smart thing will be for independents who are such a part of this Tea Party movement to, I guess, kind of start picking a party," Palin said. "Which party reflects how that smaller, smarter government steps to be taken? Which party will best fit you? And then because the Tea Party movement is not a party, and we have a two-party system, they’re going to have to pick a party and run one or the other: ‘R’ or ‘D’."

Palin said that the Republican platform best meshed with the Tea Party’s creed. However, she mentioned that her husband Todd was not a registered Republican and that the party should be open to embracing independents.

Palin used her 45-minute speech and the Q&A session that featured pre-selected questions from the crowd to sound off on everything from what she called the "snake-oil science" of global warming to politicians who are "addicted to ‘O-P-M’-other people's money."